Fox moves 'New Girl' and 'The Mindy Project' to Thursday for one week

Come April 2, when a new episode of New Girl is M.I.A. on your TV, don’t start thinking you’re the victim of a cruel belated April Fools joke. For just that week, Fox will air the Zooey Deschanel-led comedy on Thursday instead of in its regular Tuesday time slot, the network announced today.

The Mindy Project will also air a new episode on Thursday, April 4, though its April 2 episode will also be new (what a great week for Mindy Kaling fans – two new episodes in one week!). A rerun of New Girl will air in the show’s typical Tuesday 9 p.m. slot that week.

Original episodes of the two half-hour comedies will get Glee’s coveted 9 to 10 p.m. slot, right after a live episode of American Idol. No new Glee episode will be delayed as a result; a rerun was previously scheduled for that night.

At the start of the 2012-2013 season, New Girl and Mindy Project were in quite the comedy-packed hour, up against ABC’s Happy Endings and Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 and NBC’s Go On and The New Normal. Now things are a little less competitive, with Apartment 23 canceled and Happy Endingsmoved to Fridays. But Fox may still be considering a new night for its comedies (the season finale of Raising Hope will also air on a Thursday – March 28 – as previously announced). Though this Tuesday-to-Thursday shift is being billed as a special outing, it could be a good test for the network to consider when crafting next season’s schedule. The Thursday 9 p.m. slot will certainly look all the more attractive after The Office’s series finale this spring.